Zoom Zoom Zoom! by Chitra Soundar

5,

4,

3,

2,

1

ZOOM!

This year’s Summer Reading Challenge is themed on Space Chase. Librarians across the country are counting down the reading of children and awarding them medals for exploring the planet of reading.

Space achievement has always been seen as an achievement of the west. However historical records indicate that Indians and Arabs, have longed practiced astronomy and many of our 3000-old epics and scriptures refer to nine planets and moons (which perhaps today has been changed to eight and I feel for Pluto).

As we celebrate the anniversary of the moon landing, India my birth country has launched a shuttle Chandrayaan 2 to the dark side of the moon (which is a first) and that has come within two years of India launching a rover to Mars (the same time as the US, in a fraction of the cost). What was even more wonderful was that the picture that captured India’s imagination – women scientists in their saris celebrating the launch of the rover, women who have forged paths not just on Earth but into space.

Sriharikota is a small town, a few hours from where I lived captured my imagination when I was young. It was the rocket launch site and the home of ISRO – the Indian Space Research Organisation. Then as a young professional, who mentored students on their internships, I had the honour of visiting the organisation and walked into these halls that echoed the dreams of many.

A P J Abdul Kalam, India’s 11^th President was an aerospace scientist who had come from humble beginnings from the same state I belonged. He spent all his life spreading the joy of science and experimentation, and motivating youth to study and aim for the stars. (Read about APJ Abdul Kalam in this new book by Rashmi Sirdeshpande).

This also reminded me of Kalpana Chawla, a hero back in India, a US citizen, who became the first astronaut of Indian ancestry to go into space. Sadly she was on the space shuttle Columbia on her second space journey, which disintegrated on its re-entry into earth’s atmosphere.

But between her first and second missions and even after her death, she continues to inspire many young women and men to become astronauts, especially those who don’t seem to be represented in those professions.

And so when this year my picture book Farmer Falgu Goes KiteFlying was chosen for the Summer Reading Challenge in the year Space Chase was the theme, I got super excited just as Eila is in this book flying kites. Flying a kite is the first step towards aspiring to become an astronaut I think.

Then I asked the question - Are there are enough books about space heroes who are persons of colour and are they written and illustrated by BAME writers about space?

The good news is yes there are. The bad news is as always – not that many, especially not that many written by writers of colour.

Here are the ones I found – please buy them, recommend them and share them with all children – so that it is a dream that can be shared by all. And let's hope there are more books than the fingers on one hand that are written by authors of colour about space and space heroes of colour.

#OwnVoices picture books and non-fiction across UK and US

#Inclusive picture books, biographies and more published across the world

How to Write a Vivid Picture Book: Living in the Moment by Natascha Biebow

Recently, a three year-old came to play at our house. When the time came to wash our hands for tea, she stepped up onto the little stool at the kitchen sink and I passed her a bar of soap. “What’s that?” she asked. “Soap,” I replied and showed her how, if you make it a little wet, you can get lots and lots of bubbles out of it. The delight in her face was a wonder. She had never seen soap in a bar before!

Wow, what else, will our modern children soon not recognize, I wondered. Already, talk of CDs

and chalkboards  

elicits a mystified gaze. 

“Did you have telephones, Mommy?” I am asked. Well, yes, I did. But we had to borrow our neighbour’s and making long-distance calls was a big deal. 

And I looked stuff up in the Encyclopedia Britannica, 

dusty volumes, also borrowed from our British neighbour in Rio and pored over the tiny type for various homework assignments. Now, we can search for anything we like with a quick click on Google. And plan on the weather (sort of) at a glance on our phones . . .

Recently, I’ve joined the Non-Fiction Archaelogy course run by Kristen Fulton, and recommended by fellow blogger, J Clare Bell. 

(c) Kristen Fulton

One of the first things I’ve re-discovered, is there are stories everywhere you look. This is also one of the aspects of being a writer that I enjoy the most.

So far, this week, I’ve discovered that:

• Goldie the golden eagle was a true Houdini, on the run from London zoo for 12 whole days in 1965, outwitting most adults who tried to capture him and causing a traffic jam in central London

• Another escape artist was Fu Manchu, the orangutan and late resident of the Omaha Zo, foiled zookeepers by picking the locks on his enclosure with a small piece of metal wiring that he kept hidden under his cheek.

 

• The average child wears down 720 crayons by their 10th birthday

• Harrods once sold an alligator as a Christmas gift for the Noel Coward

• There is a candy desk in the US Senate 

US Candy Desk as pictured on Wikipedia

And . . .

. . . some children have never seen soap!

One of our first tasks in the course has been to find a topic for a non-fiction picture book. It’s got me thinking about narrating a story that might have happened a long time ago so that it’s relevant to contemporary children.

Not only do writers need to research how things were in the past, they need to imagine themselves there so they can show, not tell. Also, importantly, writers of all picture books must capture the child living in the moment. Stories need to be told in ‘real-time’ and flashbacks are discouraged, because pre-school children can’t yet conceptualize time in the way that adults and older children can. This is because they are egocentric; their concept of time is limited to their immediate world and routine. It's only by having experiences involving familiar sequences and routines that they can gradually conceptualize events in the past and future, expanding their world view.

So, when considering their story, it’s important for writers to look around the world through a child’s eyes, with the same freshness, verve and excitement. What we need to do is really step into the main character’s shoes and live the story in the moment, to take the time to envision and describe each scene as if we were there . . .

. . . discovering the wonder of a bar of soap’s bubbles! 

This is no mean feat if you’re living some 100 or so years after the event you are researching. But capturing these little moments of wonder is the key to writing a truly great picture book story and taking today's child reader with you.

  

Natascha Biebow

Author, Editor and Mentor

Blue Elephant Storyshaping is an editing, coaching and mentoring service aimed at empowering writers and illustrators to fine-tune their work pre-submission.  Check out my NEW small group coaching courses!

Natascha is also the author of Elephants Never Forget and Is This My Nose?, editor of numerous award-winning children’s books, and Regional Advisor (Chair) of SCBWI British Isles.  www.blueelephantstoryshaping.com